It’s been nearly two years since Taylor Hawkins’ son Shane took to the stage at Wembley to honour his father, joining Foo Fighters for a performance of My Hero at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert. This weekend, the 17-year-old — who has been playing regular gigs with his father’s covers band, Chevy Metal — joined Foo Fighters at the band’s back-to-back London Stadium dates to play drums.
First up, Thursday's show saw Shane take to Josh Freese’s monstrous double-bass drum DW kit for an energetic run-through of I’ll Stick Around, which features on Foo Fighters’ debut album, where Dave Grohl played every instrument on all but one song.
“Hi Shane, thank you for waiting three hours to come play drums with us” Dave Grohl announced as he introduced him, adding “We particularly like it when he plays this song. It’s called…I’ll Stick Around”, as Shane launches into the machine-gun 16th-note snare intro.
Hammering at the kit with all the ferocity you’d expect, Shane’s playing style, body language and mannerisms are at times uncannily similar to his dad, while also including a healthy influence from the former Nirvana drummer’s playbook as he beats his way through the song’s ankle-cramping groove and fills around the kit.
It’s not without a couple of minor slips, as pointed out in the comment section of the video, perhaps caused by Grohl’s accidental rearranging of the second verse giving Shane a different cue. But overall, the first performance prompted many fans to declare that Hawkins Jr is capable of to taking on his father’s gig full-time.
Shane returned for Saturday’s gig, reprising the song that has in many ways become recognised his own tribute to his late father. Foo Fighters have been playing a much more subdued version of the tune since touring for 2023’s But Here We Are, forgoing the iconic drum intro in favour of a guitar/piano/vocal introduction.
However, on Saturday Hawkins Jr brought it back, as Grohl told the crowd, “Watch this motherf**kers, he’s not fu**ing around!”. The band opted to go ‘classic’ adding the extended live ‘jam’ section to the song, which sees it modulate through the song’s original tempo, to a swung feel, into a double-time groove.
To close, Shane — all the while being encouraged by a visibly proud Grohl — delivers an impressive solo, before Grohl brings him to the front of the stage for a hug before addressing the crowd while laughing saying, “Who invited this punk!”.
Foo Fighters are currently on their Everything Or Nothing At All tour in the UK and Europe. For a list of dates click here.
